Is social semiotics a unitary research field? An introductory and comparative mapping of Argentinean, Brazilian, French, Italian and English-speaking semiotic approaches to social meaning-making

Abstract

In the 1980s, researchers from different academic circles around the world started paying attention to the functioning of the social realm with a focus on signification and sense-making. Since then, they have shown particular interest in studying practices, interactions and spatiality, among other objects of study, as activities that convey social meaning and produce sense. This is how the field of social semiotics emerged within general semiotics. However, the emergence of this new research field occurred in a fragmented manner. Nowadays, English-speaking ‘social semiotics’ coexists with at least two French sociosémiotiques, with Argentinean sociosemiótica, with Italian sociosemiotica and with Brazilian sociossemiótica. This article examines these five accounts of social semiotics in a comparative manner with a focus on the theoretical and methodological references they use as their sources. Therefore, the article should function as an introductory roadmap for researchers within the social and human sciences interested in approaching contemporary social semiotics and sociosemiotic research.